Lehman: countdown to crisis

Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank on Wall Street, has faced an uncertain future for months as the credit crunch continued to bite.

It admitted today that it will lose another $3.9bn this quarter, and plans to split off its toxic mortgage assets into a new company. The crisis can be traced back over a year to the point when the sub-prime mortgage market, of which Lehman was a strong advocate, went sour.